Menu Bar

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Inside the mind of killer kids

What
characteristics do school shooters share?

Springer

Boys involved in school shootings
often struggle to live up to what they perceive as their school's ideals
surrounding masculinity. When socially shunned at school, they develop deep-set
grudges against their classmates and teachers. The shooters become increasingly
angry, depressed, and more violent in their gendered practice. A shooting
rampage is their ultimate performance, says Kathryn Farr of Portland State
University in the US. In a study published in Springer's journal Gender
Issues, she investigated the characteristics shared by 31 school boys
involved in 29 mass shootings at American schools between 1995 and 2015.

Farr's analysis suggests that boys'
social status in middle and high school is determined in great part by peers'
acceptance of them as "appropriately masculine." Their guidelines for
gender appropriateness are found in a set of Adolescent Insider Masculinity
norms that describe masculinity as the ideal that men are cool, heterosexual
and tough, shy away from "sissy stuff" and embrace activities,
behavior and mannerisms that are typical of "guys." Falling short of
this ideal sets some boys up for school-situated problems and reactions that
are typical of adolescents.

Ten of the 31 shooters had a history
of serious psychiatric problems, while another ten grew up in extremely abusive
households. The remaining eleven boys tended to react explosively and
inappropriately to incidents that they perceived as unjustly discrediting them.
Twenty-five boys were white and all but one identified as heterosexual.

"Many of the adolescent
shooters had personal troubles that affected their ability to manage their
social performances at school," explains Farr. "Moreover, the
potential rampage of a boy with severe mental illness and rampage-related risk
factors could be especially injurious."

Most were repeatedly and publicly
tagged with homosexual and feminized epithets such as being a "homo,"
a "cry baby" or a "fag." All 31 shooters were made aware of
their failings through their classmates' emasculating bullying, rejection by
girlfriends, and marginalization in general. Some reported being physically and
sexually victimized by their male peers.

According to Farr, the shooters'
gender performances at school were typically 'off', either not meeting or
exaggerating the Adolescent Insider Masculinity imperatives. They saw the
responses they received as undeserved injustices that denied them their
masculine entitlements. Most used dramatic displays of masculine bravado to try
and show that they were indeed tough and powerful. They, for instance, brought
guns to school, or emphasized violent themes in their writings, drawings, and
class presentations. Almost all had bragged about their rampage plans. Such
behavior violates the moral boundaries of masculinity, and further damaged the
boys' already low social status.

Farr believes that schools should
teach their students about such shooting incidents, and the possible warning
signs that need to be reported. In-school and referral services should be
provided. School curriculums should also address adolescent masculinity issues
and discussion-based forums about issues of gender should be instigated.

"How often are adolescent boys
given the opportunity to talk with one another about masculinity norms and
their challenges, including norms embracing violence or the effects of
emasculating bullying? Such classroom-based discussions could also help schools
identify, provide and give value to activities that appeal to boys whose
interests and skills lie outside the norms of insider masculinity," Farr
says.

She warned against unnecessary
stigmatizing of troubled adolescents: "Although many boys display at-risk
behaviors and attitudes, very few will actually become school shooters."